Digital solution helps trust navigate COVID-19 backlog

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is set to launch a new digital platform to manage pre-operative assessments across its three hospitals.

The trust will launch Synopsis Home and Synopsis iQ at the Andover War Memorial Hospital, Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, and Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester in the coming months.

Synopsis iQ will allow staff at the trust to manage each patient’s elective surgery pathway, including pre-operative health questionnaires and post-operative outcomes, from a central digital dashboard.

Where suitable, the trust will also ask elective surgery patients to complete their digital pre-operative health questionnaire at home or out of hospital using Synopsis Home, before the answers are automatically risk stratified to provide triage teams with data to decide the most-appropriate pathway for each patient.

The platform will also integrate with the trust’s patient administration, EPR, and theatre scheduling systems, with data made immediately available to hospital staff.

“Trusts are trying to establish how many patients on the waiting list still wish to go ahead with their operation, identify patients who may have deteriorated physically or medically, or who have other long-term comorbidities that may affect their suitability for surgery

Michael Applethwaite, regional sales director at Synopsis, said: “Like many trusts, the team at Hampshire are now navigating a backlog of elective surgeries postponed because of the pandemic.

“Trusts are trying to establish how many patients on the waiting list still wish to go ahead with their operation, identify patients who may have deteriorated physically or medically, or who have other long-term comorbidities that may affect their suitability for surgery.

“Immediate access to real-time information is therefore crucial and using Synopsis Home and Synopsis iQ will mean hospital can quickly triage and identify patients that are fit and ready for their operation while focusing on those who require a more-detailed, hospital-based assessment, all while benefitting from referrals data, replies, and completed risk assessment information being instantly accessible via a central digital platform.

“This will be important to help the trust get as many elective surgery patients as possible assessed and prioritised in the shortest time frame following the delays caused by the pandemic.”

Earlier pre-operative assessment interventions using Synopsis iQ and Home are allowing us to identify patients at high risk of being unfit for their operation sooner, and intervene with more-effective medical input to ensure they stand the best chance of their surgery going ahead

Other trusts using Synopsis Home and iQ include South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which launched the platform in June 2020.

Speaking at the time, a spokesperson at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Earlier pre-operative assessment interventions using Synopsis iQ and Home are allowing us to identify patients at high risk of being unfit for their operation sooner, and intervene with more-effective medical input to ensure they stand the best chance of their surgery going ahead.”

“The platform is also helping us to reduce unnecessary pre-operative assessment visits, so we can reduce the number of patients in waiting rooms at any one time.

“This will be especially beneficial as we tackle the backlog of elective surgery postponed due to the Coronavirus pandemic.”